Court Allows Widow to Sue in Asbestos Case

An appeals court has ruled that the widow of a worker has the right to sue a company, which supplied asbestos-containing brake parts to his machine shop, over his death.

The lawsuit filed by Vicki Tatera of Greenfield has been reinstated by the District 1 Court of Appeals. It was in 2004 that Vicki’s husband Walter Tatera died from mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is an incurable cancer of the pleural lining of the lung and sometimes the peritoneal lining of the abdomen. The only known reason for mesothelioma is asbestos exposure. The tiny particles of asbestos are easily inhalable. Once inhaled, they remain dormant in lungs or the membrane surrounding the abdomen and the heart, usually for decades. Mesothelioma is normally diagnosed only after this dormancy period. Once diagnosed, the victim generally dies within 1 year.

According to the lawsuit filed by Tatera, her husband developed mesothelioma after working at a machine shop, where he had to ground brake linings into particular shapes to be installed in automobiles.

The court decided that Tatera can sue the FMC Corp., the supplier of the linings, for negligence as they failed to warn Walter that the parts contained asbestos and could be potentially hazardous.

The case will go for trail soon. FMC Corp. has denied the allegations.

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